Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Skeleton Twins Review

In Craig Johnson’s “The Skeleton Twins,” SNL alumni Bill
Hader and Kristin Wiig get their shot at playing dramatic roles, as Milo and
Maggie. Two basket-case twins that haven’t seen each other in ten years. They
used to be close but a family tragedy violently took away their innocence when
they were in their early teens. So they started down their different
self-destructive paths. “The Skeleton Twins” is a gloomy movie. Very gloomy
indeed. There are not one, but three instances of attempted suicide. Thankfully
the performances from Wiig and Hader—and a few supporting players—make the
picture worthwhile and Johnson knows to inject humor into the mix to ease some
of the melancholy.

The movie begins with both siblings attempting suicide but
Milo—who is also gay—is the more screwed up of the two. So before Maggie can
drown herself in pills and liquor she gets a call from the hospital about her
brother, who’s since moved to L.A. and become a struggling actor. For a change
of pace, Maggie brings Milo back with her to their hometown in upstate New York
to live with her and her husband Lance (Luke Wilson, when was the last time he
was in a movie and not a cell phone commercial?). Anytime attempted suicide is
involved—especially when it’s the inciting incident—there’s always a large
amount of uneasiness and embarrassment between the characters. The first few
interactions between them are awkward, as Maggie tries to reconnect with Milo
and he hides behind a defensive wall of sarcasm, both trying to side step the
issue.

Before long that awkwardness dissolves and they start going
at each other’s throats. “The Skeleton Twins” can best be described as: two
dysfunctional siblings telling one another how to live when neither is even
remotely qualified to give such advice. Maggie accuses Milo of being a
child—which is kind of true—and berates him about getting his act straight. Meanwhile
she’s cheated on Lance with four other guys. Most of the time this can be
entertaining to watch, I’m a sucker for a good movie argument, especially when
it makes you feel awkward and uneasy as well. Plus that’s fifty percent of what
siblings do anyways.

Hader plays the role of Milo with flamboyance and sass but
he never goes too over-the-top with it. Milo is a real person, not a gay
stereotype and Hader does a fantastic job of bringing the viewer into Milo’s psyche,
letting us experience right along with him the great amount of pain he’s
suffering. Not only that, Hader doesn’t let Milo’s homosexuality completely
define who he is, in fact you don’t notice it after a while. As good as Hader
is though, Wiig is even better and she has the more difficult role to play.
Where Milo is more outwardly reckless and self destructive, Maggie is more
inwardly reckless and self-destructive. By getting married and taking a
mundane, routine job as a dental hygienist Maggie is trying to live a normal,
stable life and tries to convince herself that she’s happy when she isn’t. For
a majority of the movie she puts on a happy face, masking her unhappiness and
shame.

Wilson is also very good as Maggie’s benevolent, supportive
husband and I appreciated that Johnson didn’t turn him into the bad guy. Lance
isn’t ignorant, or homophobic, he isn’t a workaholic jerk—what an overused
supporting character!-- who treats Maggie poorly. In fact he makes more of an effort
to bond with Milo initially than Maggie and puts up with Milo’s snippiness.
Overall, there’s nothing really wrong with Lance—other than perhaps living in
his own world a little too often and not being aware of Maggie’s depression--
instead it’s Maggie who’s the mess. Lance doesn’t deserve to be cheated on.

However, it’s when Johnson also allows Hader and Wiig to
utilize their playful, comedic sensibilities does “The Skeleton Twins” really
excel. It’s only natural for some comedy to come out of drama; when times are
bad you’ve got to find some way to make the best of it, have a laugh once in a
while. Not only that, it shows progression and growth in the characters and
story. Maggie and Milo do an awful lot of moping around and to see them ease up
and have fun together shows progress. Shows that there’s still life inside of
them and that they’re still capable of getting close again. In one of the best
scenes—when they get high on laughing gas at Maggie’s work—they display a
strong sense of intimacy and affection towards each other, a sense of intimacy
they haven’t felt in ten years.

Sometimes the mood swings—from very serious and
depressing to comic and goofy—can feel too abrupt and the ending raps things up
a little too neatly but overall “The Skeleton Twins” is a strong film, anchored
by two very strong performances. It’s not uncommon to see comedy veterans make
strong dramatic turns but that doesn’t make the feat Hader and Wiig accomplish
any lessB+